Sunday, August 30, 2009

Friday, August 28, 2009

The Wearable Arts Awards, my favourite event of the Alice Springs festival season is on this Saturday night. The Wearable Arts Awards never fail to amaze and astound with the interesting and inventive creations from local artists. Costumes are entered into different categories, including natural fibres, recycled, desert fibres and fantasia. My favourite winner of past years was in the natural fibres category (or was it recycled?). The artist had collected pelts from roadkills and had created an outfit out of the pelts. An interesting way to ensure that the poor animals hit by motor vehicles did not die in vain.

The night is always great fun and is a fabulous excuse to frock up and get out and about.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Ever had a weekend that was simply delightful? The one just gone was for me. Friday we went to the Lane for delicious tapas and wine before heading to the opera. Madame Butterfly was playing at Areluen Theatre and it was a chance to get frocked up and experience some big city culture. It was quite nice sitting back, listening and watching, while sipping my champagne. I must admit, though, that I was becoming fidgety towards the end and there where sections I couldn’t understand. As it turns out, the opera was in English AND Italian. I’m going to assume that what I didn’t understand was the Italian.

Saturday brunch at Olive Pink kicked off the day nicely. Then, while wandering through town, I bumped into a few friends at different times (this is one of those small town perks, the downside is that you will run into people you don't want to see when you've ducked out quickly for some milk wearing trackies that haven't been washed in a month, greasy hair and no make-up!). I am the type of person that, at times, is not up for a chat, but Saturday I was and I was loving it. Also helped that it was a sunny, 35 degree day. I am a sucker for hot weather.

Nick and a mate teamed up for a mountain bike challenge and despite the heat they came second! We celebrated at the local (across the road from our house) Indian restaurant.

Sunday we spent another 34 degree day sitting in the shade, catching up with friends and a few frosty beverages - Nice

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

What fills people with so much hate that a night out ends in them bashing someone to death?

A few weeks ago a group of Alice Springs blokes, aged between 19 & 24, the kind who might have been at your friend’s BBQ the week before, ended their night by terrorising people and bashing a guy to death. It was not a personal attack, they targeted people on the basis of the colour of their skin. This isn’t Alabama circa 1960, it’s Alice Springs 2009. It was a hate crime.

The blokes all come from middle to upper class families, long-term Alice Springs families. You will be hard pressed to find a local who doesn’t know their families or know someone who does. They all have trades and have chosen, post high school, to remain in Alice Springs.

The victim also came from a prominent family, with strong community ties. He was a ranger at Trephina Gorge, one of our national parks.

The media is incredibly quiet on the subject. The Age didn’t pick up the story, nor did the Sydney Morning Herald. The Australian ran one story. The ABC News two. The local paper, The Centralian Advocate, ran (to my knowledge) three stories, but has been silent on the full charges. The Alice Springs News has a fair article, focusing on the victim and his family. Maybe the silence comes from not wanting to incite more violence? The families of the guys are worried about payback.

The media silence makes me sad and angry. We should be outraged that in 2009 five white boys would be so hateful towards Aboriginal people that they would go on this kind of rampage. Had this happened in America our papers would have covered it. I think we, as Australians, don’t want to face the reality that this could happen in our lucky country.

Alice Springs doesn’t want it publicised that this happens in our town. The last two murders that happened in Alice Springs (well, the last two that made it into the paper) took place within 500 metres of our house, close to tourist areas. This murder was witnessed by 60 members of the Alice Springs running club and tourists who were on top of ANZAC Hill watching the sunrise (What were these boys thinking?).

This town has a dark, underbelly of hate, glossed over by the tourism industry. It wasn’t long ago that Aboriginal people were prevented, by way of legislation and police enforcement, from entering the Alice Springs town area (Coughlan, 1991). This ban lasted from 1928 to 1965. Racist language and ideas exist in this town to this day. The Todd Tavern still has a front bar (for the whites) and a back bar (for the blacks). The difference between now and the 60s is that blacks are allowed in the front bar.

Racism does run both ways, white boys walking home alone at night have been bashed by groups of black boys. Word of mouth (we have family who are friends and family of the blokes) is that this had happened to two of the boys from this group.

The victim’s family have called for further cultural education and awareness. This is only the beginning. I think it is important that the history of white/black relations is taught in schools to foster more of an understanding of where we and others have come from. There needs to be public outrage at this crime.

I feel for the victim’s family, who only recently lost another family member through a bashing. To simply have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. To loose two people in such a short space of time would be unbearable.

I feel for the families of these guys. Having to come to grips with how their young lad could commit such a crime. Visiting their son in maximum security (all are in maximum for their own safety). Worrying about where they went wrong. It makes me wonder about having kids. I guess you install in them the values you want them to have and at the end of the day they are their own person (see this insightful blog post on parenting from an irritating truth). But you never expect that they’ll do something like this.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Since becoming engaged I have been completely consumed with wedding stuff (doesn’t help that I have been off work sick, with a mushy brain that cant engage in much else). To give myself an outlet and in order for this blog not to be consumed with all things wedding, I have created a wedding blog, barefoot beach wedding. The other idea behind the blog is that many of our family and friends do not live in Alice Springs and this gives them a chance to enjoy the planning with us, or at least know a little of what is going on.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Coffee and juice - I love that I am able to work two days a week as an anthropologist and spend the rest of the week doing uni work for my town planning grad dip at Bar Doppios. I could almost be in the big city.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

I have recently learned to ski, thanks to the encouragement from my partner. It is quite scary, but now that I have got the hang of it a bit more I am starting to enjoy it. Australian snow can be hit and miss from season to season. These are my 'best of' photos from this year and last year, taken at Mt Buller.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

American ignorance never ceases to amaze me! CNBC journalist is calling our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd a ‘serial killer’ due to his signing off on a camel cull in Central Australia. Central Australia is over run with feral camels introduced in the early 20th Century by Afghan immigrants. The feral camels are destroying our desert ecosystem, killing plants and native animals. A cull has been proposed for a long time now and it is great to see that the PM is finally taking action.

The journalist complained that the culled camels would not be used for meat or milk, thus dying needlessly when they could be feeding people. Had she researched the story further she would have found that the camels are in an area covering 3.3 million square kilometres! The cull will be undertaken via helicopter. Where possible the camel meat will be used but it just isn’t practical when the camels are spread over such a large area. Maybe she could work out a way of collecting the dead camels?

Last Friday we headed to the big city. We spent Friday night in a cute Japanese restaurant in Fitzroy with some good friends, then it was an early start on Saturday morning to the ski slopes of Mt Buller. We had barely made it onto the Holden Lift when we received a call from a mate we were heading up the lift to meet. He had broken his wrist showing off on a run! The rest of the day was spent in and out of the Medical Centre, the staff were amazing and by early evening our mate was undergoing surgery in Melbourne.

The next few skiing days were uneventful until mid-morning Tuesday when, with some coaxing from Nick, I decided to attempt my second blue run. I had made it down my first on Sunday. Absolutely terrified at the steepness, it had ended in tears, though as Nick pointed out, I did make it to the bottom, without falling (there is something about skiing so slow that you barely move – prevents falling). ANYWAY we made it over to the start of Family Run and as I was fiddling with my poles Nick said that he would like me to make it down the run as his fiancée. Before I had a chance to register that he had dropped to one knee (snowboard on the other foot) and asked me to marry him!

I said yes. And I made it down the run - a lot easier than the one I attempted on Sunday. We skied the run a few more times then headed over to Snow Pony for some celebratory champagne.

Here's Nick with the lovely glasses of champagne created by the gorgeous staff at Snow Pony.

All photographs are mine unless otherwise stated. If you wish to use them please link to me as the original source and please email me a link to your site, because I'd love to see it! If I have incorrectly used your photograph, please let me know girlinthepjs (at) gmail (dot) com